For about six weeks before I found FA, I attended a weekly meeting for a Twelve-Step program geared toward those with dysfunctional families. I was in graduate school at the time, and a close classmate asked if I would join her at the meetings. Repeatedly during the meetings, others would mention attending different Twelve-Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. These comments started the wheels turning in my head.
One night after a meeting, my friend and I were sitting in a coffee shop, and I asked her “Do you think you’re an addict?”
“I think I dabble in everything,” she said. “What about you?”
After a moment’s thought, I said for the first time out loud, “I think I have a problem with food.”
That was the starting point of my FA journey. Late that night, after an internet search for food addiction, I found an FA meeting close to where I lived. Attending that meeting brought about a great discovery: I was an addict…a food addict. I stopped attending those other meetings, as did my friend and devoted myself to FA.
For six years, I have worked this program, and it has worked miracles in my life. It has brought about immense growth and change, one day at a time. Meanwhile, my friend went on to get married, graduate with her master’s degree, and move to a big city far away from her family and friends to support her husband in furthering his education.
We have kept in contact periodically over the years, and a while ago, I received a call from her. We said our hellos, and she jumped right into telling me she had just completed her First Step with her sponsor in a Twelve-Step program. She said she knew she could tell me without shame or judgement because I would understand. She shared the intimate details of the impact her addiction had on her marriage and her overall well-being. We talked openly about a higher power and the trust and faith needed to overcome our addictions.
I’m grateful that my simple action of showing up one day at a time allowed God to use me to offer support. I was the safe landing ground for my friend to share openly about her addiction and the healing the Twelve-Steps are bringing into her life. God has used us both in one another’s lives. Most importantly, He has given us each the beautiful gift of Twelve-Step recovery.